The family of Karina Menzies told how she sacrificed her life for her two children by using her body to shield them from Matthew Tvrdon.

Her sister, Samantha, 26, said: "Karina died saving her own children. They remember how she pushed them to safety but was killed there instead of saving herself.

"The girls were holding their mum's hands on the way home when they saw her killed right in front of them. How will they ever get that image out of their head?

"Her daughters still cry for her and all I can do is cuddle them and tell them how much she loved them."

Menzies, 31, a single mother, was hit three times by Tvrdon. Ellie, eight, and Tiana, four, were injured alongside her.

Speaking outside court, her sister said: "Our family has been destroyed because of what Matthew Tvrdon did that day. We are very lucky we didn't lose Ellie and Tiana as well."

They are being brought up by their aunt just 10 minutes' walk away from the scene of the fatal hit-and-run outside a fire station in Ely, Cardiff.

She said: "There are no words for what they have seen and been through. Karina was the most intelligent and funny person I have ever known. We all miss her so much – but nobody more than her children."

Karina's oldest daughter, Sophie, who has a degenerative muscle disease, was on a holiday for disabled children in Disney World, Florida, at the time of the crash in October last year.

The family waited until she came home four days later to break the tragic news her mum had gone.

Samantha, a nursery nurse, said: "She was hysterical and screamed: 'Where am I going to go?' – she begged not to be put into care. But by then I had already decided to bring all three girls up as my own.

"It is what Karina would have wanted – I love the girls and I'm doing my very best to care for them and soothe their nightmares. Nothing will replace Karina. They miss her smile, her hugs, her laughter.

"Life is still a complete rollercoaster. One day I think the girls are coping quite well, the next it's clear to everyone they aren't. The girls still have so much grieving to do.

"They talk about their mum all the time and we have pictures of her everywhere. If they cry for her I cuddle them and tell them how much she loved them.

"At least my nieces can feel safe knowing their mummy's killer is behind bars and he can never hurt them again. I hope I can be as good a mum to her as she was."